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ok we take your bait. please post the congressional legislation repealing Hyde. oh I see it doesn't exist. the radical right got their way and they still refuse to take yes for an answer. anyone now wonder why no one takes their agenda seriously anymore?

The Hyde Amendment is dead. Whatever is in this 2700+ pages of mishmash is now law when President Obama signs it.

An Executive Order cannot supercede or trump statutory law. When the President signs this, it becomes statutory law.

Either the President and his people are mistaken, or they intentionally clouded the issue with smoke by offering to use an Executive Order. Should an Executive Order be allowed to trump Statutory Law, then we can know for sure that the Constitution is totally dead, and at that point, we can be sure we are living in a dictatorship.

do we need to go back and retrieve all of 37th and jake's posts over the last 30 days here praising Stupak and telling us how he is their hero and would guarantee the end of HC reform. The reason it is so humorous is b/c they take themselves and their inane predictions seriously.

my post was actually at 4:55 pm and I nailed your predicable reaction to Stupak. I was going to ad that they would be calling Stupak but I really didn t think your crowd would be that dumb.

"for months we have been telling jake that Stupak would end up voting for HC and that Obama is serious that the Hyde Amendment would stand. What we heard from the R radicals was that if HC passes there would be blood in the streets and the world would quickly come to an end. My guess is that tomorrow we will now hear from jake and his band of radicals that Stupak sold out and their metaphoric knives will now be aimed at defeating Congressman Stupak. What these radical Rs don't understand is that the D party is truly a big tent and that is precisely why they will continue to control Congress after elections in Nov. Surely that is gnawing at them today."

no jake I made that post at 5 pm yesterday as soon as Stupak announced his support for HC. My exact words were that expect jake to start throwing metaphorical spears at Stupak and calling him a traitor would be happy to retriev that post I made last night, but you are so predictable, its laughable that we should expect any less from you.

"Do you think that the federal government can force those who don't own cars to purchase automobile insurance too?"

actually jake judges and the DPS does this every day, its called non owner's liability. You are a lawyer, surprised you didn't know that.

As to mandates, precisely what would you call Medicare and Social Security. I presume that your secret society will be demanding that the mandates on SS and Medicare be held to be unconstitutional as well and that that become the official platform of the Fla and Arizona GOP.

Oh and the world and the DOW would end today according to jake and 37th, how is that working out? HC stocks are screaming up, just as predicted.

Todd's math is slightly off. The United States as we know it began in 1789, not 1776. Then again, it didn't end in 2010 either. For the sweeping nature of such a program, it would have ended in the 30s.

Today was the death of the United States of America as we know it, 1776-2010. This fraudulant userper to the white house, his majestey, the African Lying Lion, the Chimp in Chief, and his evil Minions of the Democrat Party have forced the working class of America to grab there ankels and take it up the rear weather we want this or not. Everything the founders of our great nation worked for is being taken away from us and being given to the blacks, the mexicans, the illegals, the homosexuals, the lazy and shiftless, those who flaunt God's laws and think that Man has a better idea how to behave than OUR CREATOR. Instead of bowing down to JESUS CHRIST we are forced to bow to Obama, a MINION OF SATAN! These are the end of days!!! All that is left is that we can PRAY FOR GODS MERCY that he has only been testing us and will soon intervean and restore a Godly man to the white house.

@archaeoman: I'd say that people still believe is far and away the more bizarre.
There've always been liars, always will be. Nothing new. What is new is people committing that act of ideological doublethink that enables them to continue to believe what they know to be false. You can bet for example that most of the birthers are fully aware of the absurdity of their claim, requiring a conspiracy hatched when Obama was born, requiring the silent and secret complicity of thousands, the falsification of records, the foreknowledge that he would be president one day, to say nothing of a cartoonishly incompetent Department of Justice.

Just one example, one near and dear to the readers here. Hey that rhymes, therefore it's profoundly true. Anyway.

Fundamental to our political system is that voters are informed and have their own self-interest at heart. When it comes to Republican allegiance, that presumption has stunningly failed. Who but a billionaire defense contractor or corporate executive has a dog in that fight? Why do poor people line up and carry signs and chant their demands to be fleeced and robbed? It boggles the mind.

It's gone in my lifetime from believing discredited ideas like trickle-down economics to starkly accepting as true assertions that conflict with clear recent memories. We even have Republicans claiming now that 9/11 happened during Bill Clinton's presidency. that the economic downturn started the day President Obama took office. And willing believers by the millions.

- Bush presidency.
1. unnecessary Iraq war. Cost to the US: too many dead American soldiers and $ 800 billion (and counting) over seven years. Benefits to the US: none, really.
2. Economic meltdown of 2008. Cost to the US: about three trillion committed, anybody's guess how much will be lost for good. Benefits: we avoided a Great Depression and had to suffer only a recession.

- Obama presidency (so far)
1. healthcare reform. Cost to the US: 900 billion over 10 years. Benefits: deficit reduction of 1.3 trillion over 20 years, healthcare security for almost all Americans.

And Republicans are now trying to convince me that Obama is wasting my tax dollars, and that they will be better stewards of federal finances? I'm not sure what is more bizar: that claim, or the fact that there are still people that fall for it.

The Bush tax cuts ultimately hurt the economy.
The economy went through 2 Bush tax cuts which primarily stimulated a real estate bubble that burst during the election of 2008.
The tax cuts were tailored for the wealthy who received most of the benefit.
They then largely invested in real estate and derivative products which produced rapidly increasing prices. When the end came, many banks and investors were bailed out by Bush. This negated the effect of increased tax revenue from the stimulated economy. So the benefits of the cuts were lost in the bailouts. This increased the deficit by at least one trillion dollars over what would be expected to occur without the bailout.

I'm not exactly sure if Mississippi is affected by the fix. They would if they met the requirements. Mississippi got hit, but in terms of infrastructure, the damage wasn't as great, so the outside money might not have affected their calculations in a way that affects medicaid.

No idea if the CBO scored this. I assume they did. The fix nets Louisiana about $300 million. So if you want to assume the CBO didn't score this, then subtract $300 million from their calculated savings. It's a rounding error. I doubt it, though. The CBO is very thorough and it's hard to imagine they missed such a well publicized element.

37th, That is true.
States regulate auto insurance, but it is an example of government imposed insurance albeit at the state level.
There is no constitutionality problem.
The federal government has much broader powers under the commerce clause using it for civil rights and even sex offenders.
Insurance regulation clearly would fall underneath it and the supreme court would be unlikely to challenge requirements of the law concerning insurance coverage.

Force private citizens to buy insurance?
Why, the federal government can force you to join the military, to protect the country.
Why couldn't they force you to buy insurance to protect yourself? They force you to buy liability insurance for your car to protect others. Why not health insurance? They force you to buy social security and medicare insurance for your old age too. Why not health insurance. The interstate commerce clause allows the federal government to regulate and control trade and commerce between states, it has been broadly interpreted to include other things as well. It is very unlikely that it will denied by the Supreme Court.

37th, I think the Louisiana Purchase is still in too. I was being tongue in cheek about it, but the amendment is definitely important. It adjusts the formula for medicaid reimbursement to disaster stricken areas.

What happened is that after Katrina hit, people started collecting insurance for damages from Katrina. As a result, the federal government determined that the income of Louisiana went up 40%. Yeah. Katrina raised the income of Louisianans by 40%. So when state income goes up, then the federal government's share of medicaid goes down (and a hurricane ravaged state foots the bill)

The Louisiana Purchase was basically saying that the Federal Government wouldn't reduce its medicaid share for disaster stricken states that have artificially raised incomes. Louisiana was paying 70% of state medicaid and the fed paid 30%. The fix would return it to that level. It's common sense. It is a real fix to a real problem.

This is quite different from the Cornhusker Kickback in which the Fed would pay 100% of Nebraska's medicaid expansion mandated by the bill. From my understanding, all states would get this 100% for three years. Nebraska gets the 100% forever. This is obviously different from the Louisiana deal. That's why the Louisiana deal is going to all states and Nebraska is getting the axe.

You cretins just lost BIG, and the american people won. Thirty million will now have healthcare. The diseased will be cured, lives will be saved, and you ca go lick your wounds somewhere else, you loathsome pervert.

As for the midterms, I'm not sure how today's angry people can get any angrier by the time the voting begins. Their biggest continuing effect on the elections might be if they are unable to vote because they had heart attacks or their heads exploded.

I have this feeling that daily life will feel the same later this year as it does now. In other words, most of us will have moved on to whatever will be on our minds at that time. Jobs, jobs, jobs, perhaps?